130 TIPS AND TOE-WEIGHTS, 



the other hand, his destiny should be fast harness work, to be per- 

 formed on roads still unvisited by a steam roller, and where (especi- 

 ally in double harness) he is powerless to choose his own gi-ound, then 

 I have, by unpleasantly gained experience, learnt that the Charlier 

 system does not afford the necessary protection, and that it is desir- 

 able to use a shoe of the old type, with a bearing, however, restricted 

 to the outside insensitive crust only, a flatly projecting flange extend- 

 ing to the inside of the semi-circle, the unimpaired and developed frog 

 having still a bearing in the centre almost flush with the flange or 

 flat web; a knife being in no case applied either to frog or sole, and 

 the desired diminution of length of toe being effected by a rasp, as 

 we should file the ends of our own finger-nails. 



The advantage of the Charlier system to that class of hoi-ses first 

 referred to, and also to driving horses where steam rollers are in 

 voo-ue (and at times of year when country roads are not in a 

 state of chronic reparation), is that they are light, ensure frog pres- 

 sure with its consequent development, and therefore wide and open 

 heels, freedom from windgalls, dimunition of risks of fetlock cutting, 

 brushing, speedy-cutting, and tendon and joint straining; the foot, 

 with the addition of a steel rim or moulding to preserve its integrity, 

 being in all other respects in the same condition as that of our happy 



colt solid instead of ^lollow, and therefore free from the risks of 



picking up stones, of shoe-pulling through suction in deep rides through 

 clay coverts, when the familiar sounds of " cork- drawing " are in the 



air. 



"Impecunious" observes that farriers are opposed to the Charlier 

 system — the reason for which, however, are by no means hard to find, 

 for it requires more delicacy of workmanship, more care and time — in 

 fact, the services of a more skilled artisan ; the modus operandi being 

 first to rasp away the extra length of toe which had gi'own during 

 the inteiwal between the last shoeing or removal, as may be (and 

 which in the case of the colt would have been constantly and regu- 

 larly kept back by fnction of the toe against the ground), then to 

 lower the groove in the insensible outside crust to its proper level, 

 and then — that which is the real difficulty— to adjust the steel shoe 

 with perfect accuracy to the form of the foot and groove, before a nail 



